


Feed dog

by canadino



Series: Veludo Way Shotengai [2]
Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:53:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21667744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canadino/pseuds/canadino
Summary: Feed dogs move as you sew, gently gripping the bottom fabric to help it pass through the sewing machine and produce a high-quality stitch.
Relationships: Nanao Taichi/Rurikawa Yuki
Series: Veludo Way Shotengai [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1562077
Comments: 3
Kudos: 65





	Feed dog

Taichi loved going through the shopping arcade on his way to work. His mother called him sociable, but a new day meant a new chance to meet someone new. It wasn’t particularly that he enjoyed learning new names, but it was fun to hear how others did things and thought about things. Some people he knew better, by virtue of always seeing them - the grocer and his wife, the woman who ran the electronics and appliance store with her son, the two women who owned the bookstore. Sometimes they introduced him to regulars, so he got to know more people. It was impossible to be good friends with all of them, but he liked being liked and it was an exciting feeling to think that someone could just see him and say - oh, that’s the boy with red hair and the skateboard. He’s a fine young man. I’m happy to know him. 

And - well, maybe there was someone in the shopping arcade he wanted to feel that way about him. 

No, he couldn’t think like that. Not anymore. Such was Taichi’s resolve, but he was vividly aware he was approaching a familiar storefront with the pink and white awning and the lovely wood sign with gold paint and varnish. Even the sidewalk in front of the store seemed especially whimsical, as if fairies themselves came to sweep and flutter to drop sparkly dust on the pavement in their wake. No, he was definitely imagining that. Kazunari had said it was rose-colored glasses. He would pay it no mind, he was going to walk right past it without stopping or looking (he could have crossed the street to completely avoid the place, but he was already on that side of the street and it wasn’t like he planned to be on that side or anything, so it was hard to pinpoint where exactly he might have made the choice to switch--

A hand reached out of the door and grabbed him by the back of his collar. Letting out a gurgle, Taichi ground in his heels to stop himself. “Were you trying to run past me? Rushing like that.” 

Taichi felt his legs turn to jelly. “No, of course not, Yuki-san.” As always, Yuki looked beautifully put together; tailored to fit sweater and black velvet skirt and long socks and expensive-looking shoes. Taichi noticed all this through his peripheral vision, as he was diligently examining the address plate for the boutique they were standing in front of. “Er, I’m just late, so I was trying to hustle…”

“Not that you’re ever really on time. It’s a surprise Tsukioka hasn’t fired you yet.” Yuki sighed. “In any case, a minute or two later isn’t going to make a difference. I’m trying to put an order for a couple yards of fabric, but as usual, the old man at the fabric store isn’t picking up. I can’t leave my store unattended, so I’ve written down exactly the type and the amount I need--”

“No!” His outburst was unexpected, as it startled Yuki to flinch and bite his tongue. “I mean, I’m sorry but I can’t run any more errands for you. You...you’ll just have to find someone else! Sorry! Gotta go!” Before he could waiver, as he knew he would if Yuki decided to cajole him and gaze sweetly up at him with doleful, blinking eyes, Taichi turned and made like a banana and split. 

He was barely on time for his shift when he burst through the door. “Tsumugi-san!” Taichi cried, coming in like a whirlwind. “I tried what you said and said I was busy to Yuki-san! I think I really surprised him!” Tsumugi was not at the front so he rushed back, partially shedding his jacket and bag along the way. “Tsumugi-san? Where are--” Tsumugi was near the sinks where they washed out old pots and gave showers to the plants that were having a rough time. But he was not alone; as Taichi hurled forward, Tsumugi stepped away from Tasuku, who cleared his throat and looked away. “Oh…” Tasuku’s arms had snapped back to his sides before Taichi could notice, but Tsumugi was just bringing his hand away from Tasuku’s elbow. It was completely obvious they were having an intimate moment and he had ruined it. “Sorry…”

“For what? You just surprised us, is all,” Tsumugi said, good-naturedly. 

“For the record, we weren’t doing anything indecent,” Tasuku said. “Just kissing.” 

“Ta-chan!”

“I’m going to check the humidifiers!” Taichi blurted, throwing his things onto the floor and grabbing his apron. He was making a big fuss changing out the water when Tasuku finally left, glancing over at him and away sheepishly. Tsumugi acted like nothing was wrong, but his cheeks were still dusted pink. Taichi had thought this a couple times, but again he was struck with how his - thing - with Yuki was inconsequential compared to Tsumugi and Tasuku. It seemed that Tasuku had just appeared one day and suddenly he and Tsumugi were head over heels for each other and tripping everyone else in their wake. In contrast, his situation was a total non-starter. 

During his break, he went across the street to Picaresca. Tasuku was in the middle of tattooing a client and did not even look up. Kazunari was chattering away at Banri, but he perked up when he noticed Taichi come in. “Tai-chan! Hey!”

Kazunari had a much more productive reaction than Tsumugi. “Oh, nice! I’m glad you finally are making some space. As they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder. You can’t look so available that Yuki-chan takes you for granted!”

“Yeah, right? Right?” Banri had abandoned him to answer the phone; he had since the beginning shown no interest in helping Taichi with his love troubles. Taichi had thought he was completely uninterested, but Kazunari had whispered that Banri himself was in the midst of courting a fetching salaryman. But despite his best efforts, Banri stayed mum about his own life and offered no words of wisdom. “I mean, he was just using me as an errand dog! How can he think of me as anything else than that if I only do that!”

“Yup, yup. So did you then tell him you’re available for anything else unrelated to his store?”

Taichi blinked. “Oops.”

  
  
  
  


To his credit, Taichi had lasted longer than any of the others Yuki had strung around. The longest had cracked after a month, finally lashing out after realizing that the sweet promises were empty and all Yuki was doing was for his own benefit. It wasn’t that he liked using other people; but if they were approaching him, squirming and wanting something more, he would be foolish to send them on their way and wake their dormant instincts for a chase. It was better to show his cards upfront and let his own wiles chase them away. 

Because Taichi had kept coming back like a dog that didn’t know he was being abandoned, Yuki knew more about him than anyone else who had been his unofficial assistant. Taichi was in college studying physical therapy, but he didn’t really know what he wanted to do other than he liked using his hands and moving around. He didn’t feel very strongly about flowers or plants, but he thought the image of a florist was attractive to girls. He had a lot of people he admired and looked up to. Taichi hadn’t struck him as particularly smart or conniving, so Yuki thought he had struck gold having a messenger run around for him in exchange for talking a little and letting Taichi stare at him awestruck when he thought Yuki wasn’t looking. In fact, he was starting to think Taichi was a little dependable, and then today he had definitely brushed him off and ran away. 

It took a couple more calls, his patience wearing thin, before the old man picked up and took his order for more fabric. If Taichi was still coming at his summons, he could have gotten him to pick up the order of fabric so he could go home directly and start working on the garment again. As it was, he would have to rush after he closed the store to make it before the old man closed shop himself, and then he’d have to rush to catch the bus to get home. By the time he’d get home, he’d have wasted time he could have used cutting and constructing. At this rate, he wouldn’t finish in time. 

Yuki loved handling and selling clothes, but he would love selling his own clothes more. 

The boutique was pretty slow during the day, the teenagers and businesswomen preferring to browse after school or work or during the weekends, so he turned back to his notebooks behind the counter. Maybe the others were right, that he ought to have finished his degree in fashion. But it seemed that the important thing was to have experience in design, and the chance to own his own place and work with designers felt more worthwhile than sitting in a classroom and learning about it in theory. And he had certainly learned a lot - the whole creative process through different creators, sorting through good suppliers, getting proper financial support and agents. The last thing he had left was to strike out on his own, so he wouldn’t have to answer to the designers who used his space to sell. 

He didn’t want to cut corners, but perhaps he’d have to. To spin it differently, this was an opportunity to show how resourceful he could be and how effectively he could disguise working with limited time. His designs had already been presented, but finished products always looked different than the drawings - ruminating on this, he scribbled notes on how to recreate a section of a bodice. The fabric was a bit tough, to have the look he envisioned, so forcing it to comply with the design would take time; if it was an attachment, which could be used as an accessory...when he looked up again, the sun had started sinking from the sky, the light cast through the windows more orange than bright. 

The door opened as Yuki was admiring this, and a head of orange walked in. Sumeragi Tenma wasn’t Yuki’s favorite part time employee from the plant shop - not that he had a favorite, he reminded himself - but he was one of the few people Yuki knew who worked around his shop and knew how he operated.

“Hey, fraud,” he called from the counter. Tenma, who had been looking at the new leather accessories at the front, turned with a scowl. “I need your help.”

“I’m only here to buy something, not be your hired help,” Tenma said, although he walked up to the counter nonetheless. “Anyway, why don’t you ask Taichi? Doesn’t he do all your chores for you?”

“He said he was busy today.” Tenma would never let him hear the end of it if he told him that Taichi had actually rebuked him. “Look...I need you to run and get my order at the fabric store. It won’t take any more than twenty minutes for you, I’m sure. You can run there and back in no time.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“I can’t just leave my shop unattended!”

“Then get it tomorrow or next Monday, when you’re off.” 

“I can’t.” Tenma’s frown deepened at his tone. “I don’t have any time left. I need to work on this by the end of the month or else I won’t be considered and it took so long to get an agent to consider me…” By sheer luck of one of the designers he worked with, he had finally gotten an agent to look at his designs. It was an oversight on his part to not come prepared with actual product, so he was left with the bulk of the work on a ticking clock. He certainly could ask for an extension, but he couldn’t guarantee he would still be considered seriously and in any case, it wasn’t very professional to miss a deadline. 

Tenma sighed. “You always take on so much work on your own. Remember when you had that big showcase and ran yourself ragged? Why don’t you just hire a part-timer to run the store while you work in the back or something?”

Tenma already knew why. They were the same in that regard. “I don’t want to give my shop to someone I don’t know.” It was trust, but it was also pride - getting a part-timer was simple enough, but after all he’d told his parents and sisters that he would raise himself up on his own, it felt like losing to admit he couldn’t handle the workload he had signed up for. “Anyway, does it look like I have time to be interviewing people? Why don’t you just work for me if you think it’s so easy.” 

“I’m taking classes, working on two film projects, and I’m working part-time at the flower shop. I don’t have time to play manager for you. You probably wouldn’t even pay as well as Tsukioka-san anyway.” Tenma sighed again. “Fine. I’ll do it for you once. And you owe me. I’m not a pushover like Taichi is.” 

“That stupid dog isn’t being pushed around by me.”

“Oh yeah? Then what does he get from doing your bidding for free?”

It wasn’t really for free - at least, Yuki didn’t think so. Taichi flushed whenever he smiled at him and thanked him in all earnestness. Taichi seemed to be genuinely interested whenever Yuki talked about his designs to him. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

“Ugh, whatever. Anyway, you owe me, remember that.” 

When Taichi was finished at the plant shop, having taken in the signboard and swept and gathered his things as Tasuku walked over from across the street to walk Tsumugi home, he hurried down to Yuki’s boutique. Maybe he had been a little harsh earlier; he wasn’t used to saying no when people needed his help. Those types of headstrong people were usually hated, after all. Yuki had been asking him for favors a lot as of late, so he figured Yuki was super busy. He had time to run one tiny little errand. But as he came up to the door, he saw Tenma standing outside with a bag of cloth. 

“I had an argument with that old man...he said he didn’t recognize me so he thought I was trying to steal your stuff. Like what would I do with all this cloth on my own?”

“Yeah, I guess he wouldn’t be expecting you on my behalf.” Yuki took the bag of fabric from him. “Thank you. Really.” Taichi almost gasped audibly. Yuki almost never thanked anyone for anything, much less Tenma - hadn’t he been complaining only days ago that Tenma was the most fussy guy, demanding that a scarf from the boutique that he’d been saving up for that had been sold be restocked? “I guess you’re more reliable than you look.” 

“Save that kind of flattery for someone who wants to hear it. You’re making me feel like a cat pet all wrong.” Yuki laughed. 

Taichi waited until Tenma had walked off and Yuki had gone back into the shop and closed the door. Carefully, he made his way across the street so Yuki couldn’t see him from the sidewalk and made his way home. Although he had said all that - Yuki had other guys he could ask to help him. He wasn’t special in the least. Kazunari’s suggestion felt more superfluous; if Yuki didn’t even need his help, there would be no reason for him to want Taichi around just to hang out. Maybe Tenma was better at things than him too; he had a better eye for plant arrangements, so Yuki would like his input on designing. He could remember plant names Tsumugi told them so they could label the pots correctly; Taichi needed a couple repeats and occasional help on spelling. The only real advantage he had on Tenma was that Tsumugi no longer asked Tenma to make deliveries after the last trip took two hours after Tenma got lost. 

“Tsumugi-san,” he said during his next shift. “Please don’t put Tenma-kun on a shift with me anymore.”

Tsumugi stared at him as he made his signature soil mix; the plants that used his secret composition seemed to grow faster, and he was starting to get requests to sell the mixture from those keeping home gardens. “Did you and Tenma get into a fight? That isn’t good. What happened?”

“Nothing happened. We didn’t fight. I just...don’t want to work with him.”

“I know Tenma can be challenging to work with sometimes, but I know he didn’t mean anything bad. Let me talk to him; I don’t like the idea of my staff being upset with each other…”

“No! Nothing happened, really. Er...so you know how he’s doing a television program right now? I’m...following it and I don’t want him to accidentally spoil what happens since he knows it. See? Isn’t that stupid? I didn’t want you to know that I’m that worried about a show.” Taichi laughed awkwardly. “So maybe...I don’t mean anymore like forever. For maybe a few weeks.” 

Tsumugi seemed to accept this explanation, but then when he asked him all sorts of questions about the show in question, Taichi remembered that he was a terrible liar. 

  
  
  
  


“I found you a part-timer,” Tenma announced, striding into the boutique. He beckoned to the boy behind him, who approached the counter hesitantly. “This is Muku. He’s the cousin of a...friend of a friend? He’s a little shy but I vouch for him.” He clapped Muku on the back. “This is Yuki, the annoying curator of this place. He’s too full of himself to delegate, so if you see him start to wither at the edges, just go ahead and help him out.”

“I’ve always passed by this shop,” Muku mumbled. “It’s so beautiful and the clothes inside are always so pretty. I...erm...write a little bit on the side and this is definitely the type of place where someone would have a fateful encounter…!”

“I told you I don’t need help,” Yuki said. 

“Yes you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t have begged for mine.” Tenma ignored Yuki’s frown. “Think of it this way; Muku needs a job. You’d be doing him a favor using him for the few weeks you need to get your stuff together. You owe me, remember.”

“What about after I’m done with my work? And I don’t need an assistant?” 

“My cousin works at a bakery down the street,” Muku said. “It’s always super busy there, especially with the holidays coming up...I can always work there a bit. I don’t really need a job…” At Tenma’s elbow, he gurgled. “...but I want to help you! Tenma-kun told me about how you’ve been running this shop by yourself and that’s so heroic of you! But even heroes and princes need someone to help them be their best selves! So please let me work for you for a little bit!”

“He’s very passionate,” Tenma said. 

“I couldn’t notice.” Yuki surveyed Muku up and down. “Hmm. At least he looks natural in here. It would have been a mistake to have a rough and tumble guy like you to ruin the clothes.” Yuki had a sharp tongue, but Tenma didn’t feel like rising to the provocation. The barb didn’t have much teeth in it, and it was about as close to a thank-you that he was ever going to get. Leaving Muku to situate himself at his new temporary position, Tenma left for the plant shop. He wasn’t scheduled to work, but Tsumugi had excitedly texted him earlier about a new fertilizer he’d gotten his hands on that was made for bonsai and promised Tenma some. 

Tsumugi was out on a delivery, but Taichi was around when Tenma came in through the back door. His unannounced arrival made Taichi bristle; Tenma was used to Taichi’s conflicting attitude toward him - on one hand, Taichi was easily impressed by his accomplishments (and who wouldn’t be) and on the other hand, Taichi was also easily riled into calling him his rival. Tenma didn’t mind; rivals were indicators that one was doing something right, and Taichi wasn’t very serious about competition with him. They generally got along, as Taichi was fundamentally good-natured. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Yes, it is. Tsumugi-san said he had some fertilizer for me; I’m just gonna grab it and go.”

“It should be in a little container in the back.” As Taichi had said, there was a little plastic container with Tenma’s name written on tape. “Hey,” Taichi said, as Tenma carefully put the container into his bag. “So you’ve been helping Yuki lately, huh.”

“Is that going around? I said it was just a one time thing.” Taichi was glowering at him still. “Well? If you’re so concerned about it, then why don’t you help him yourself?”

“I...he doesn’t need my help.”

“He needs all the help he can get. He’s working on some design project by the end of the month and he’s burning the candle at both ends. I got a friend to go work temp for him until he’s done. At least, if he dies from exhaustion, I can’t say I didn’t help.”

“Could I get arrested for refusing to help him if he dies?” Taichi asked, in all seriousness. Tenma looked sadly at him. 

“First of all, you won’t be arrested. Second of all, don’t falter now! You’ve almost made it to a week.” Kazunari, in between clients, cheered him on. Sakyo was glaring at him from the back corner, where he was trying to balance their books while Banri and Tasuku’s tattoo guns droned on. Taichi had never come in to see Kazunari working on a piece, although Kazunari attributed it to their being so in sync that whenever they needed the other’s help, there was nothing to distract them. “I know it seems tough...but that’s just the game, you know!”

“I like games but I don’t like this game,” Taichi groaned. 

“Yes, yes. You’ve got to let Yuki come to you. If he doesn’t, then you’ll know he doesn’t really care about you, and it’s not worth it!” Kazunari threw an arm about Taichi. “Come on, come on, I taught you all those picture editing tricks...haven’t you gotten any likes on them?”

Momentarily distracted, he brightened up. “Yeah! Someone in my anatomy class said that the pictures when we went to see the fall leaves looked like they didn’t even happen in Japan! No one said anything about the selfie under the tree but they must have seen it--”

“That’s good! Ha ha, I know how to hook ‘em in, and I’ll teach you all I know. You’ve got a ton of likes here...well, with the algorithm, I’m sure it’ll shoot up on Yuki’s feed and he’ll have to see and think about you!”

Taichi drooped again. “I don’t think he follows me.”

“What? Tai-chan, half of my tricks are depending that you guys are stalking each other on the ‘gram. What’s his account? I’ll slide into his DM’s…”

“I don’t know.” 

Kazunari stared at him. “Do you know his number?”

“We never exchanged it.”

“Taichi!” Kazunari leapt to his feet. At the movement, and at Kazunari’s sudden use of his full given name, Taichi jumped up too. Sakyo’s glare deepened. “Tai-chan, are you telling me that there’s no way for Yuki to contact you on his own? You haven’t got his number or his LINE or his email or anything?”

“Well--in what circumstances would it have been appropriate to ask him those things?!”

Kazunari, who had always been chatty since the day Taichi met him, was speechless. Tasuku finished with his client and sent them on their way, cleaning up his space while the two looked at each other in the lobby. “Give me your phone, Tai-chan.”

“Huh? Sure, here...what? What? I don’t get it...what’s the problem?” Leaning over to see what Kazunari was doing hunched over his phone, Taichi yelped as Kazunari followed the boutique’s Instagram account under his name and liked the most recent photo that included Yuki vaguely in the shot. “Hey! What are you doing? I thought you said I needed to give him space!”

“I said,” Kazunari said, holding the phone out of reach, “give him space. Not fall off the side of the planet so the only way he could talk to you was if he went to the flower shop or you went to the boutique! I thought you guys were talking already if he was making you run around for him. I’m sure he monitors this account, so I’ve gotten you one way he can talk to you.” Taichi’s phone was promptly plucked out of his hand; the two looked up to see Sakyo holding the phone. 

“Nanao, if you don’t go back to work, I will have a talk with Tsukioka about the quality of his staff. Miyoshi, if you insist on goofing off during working hours, I will just have to assume you have no interest in continuing to tattoo in my studio.”

Banri scoffed as Taichi meekly took his phone and shuffled out of the store. “You really need to be a dog trainer to deal with those two.”

“Tsumugi owns a dog,” Tasuku replied.

  
  
  
  


“Maybe this is rude of me to ask,” Muku began delicately, as they were closing up the store for the day, “but...are you waiting for someone, Yuki?”

“What would give you that idea?”

“Well...maybe this is me thinking too much...but it feels like you’ve been looking out the window a lot...I mean, I guess there’s no reason why you couldn’t, it’s not like you’d just be looking at all the clothes all the time, and I’m not trying to suggest that you should be looking at me all the time either...ooh...but it just feels like...you’re looking for someone.” 

Yuki thought that might be the most natural conclusion, considering that since Muku had began helping him run the store, he had taken all his materials that he didn’t need his machine for and had been hand-sewing in the doorway to the back room. He’d told Tenma he didn’t need help, but with Muku to greet customers and field calls, he’d managed to make a pretty significant dent in his work. With this as his regular background dressing, Muku was sure to notice whenever Yuki got distracted or stopped for a break or - god forbid - looked out the window. “Who knows.”

“Eh? Who is it!”

“Good that you’ve got the signboard from outside; hold it up, won’t you? Your handwriting is so neat and your doodles are cute, and it would be a waste to just erase it. I’ll post it on the store’s account and tag you so all your fans flock in and buy all the merch.”

“I don’t really have fans,” Muku demurred, fidgeting in embarrassment. He held the sign obediently as Yuki tapped on his phone; he let the sign drift downward as he watched Yuki’s eyes widen. “What-what happened? Oh no...did the agent push up the deadline?”

“What? Oh, no, don’t even say that…” Yuki was frowning, but Muku didn’t get the sense that he was completely angry. “How dare he...he doesn’t want to help me anymore, but now he decides to follow my account and like this photo…? It’s not even my cutest one, the nerve…” Glancing up, he seemed to remember Muku was still waiting for him to take a picture. “Sorry...wait, I’ve got an idea.” Crouching down, Yuki angled his phone to capture the whole sign with his face on the side. As Muku carried the sign to the back to wipe down, he listened to Yuku mutter his caption: “We’ve got a resident artist helping out at the store, come browse and pick up something pretty if-you’re-brave-enough. Hah. Take that, idiot.”

The bait remained untouched, although the boutique’s account gained another follower, whom Yuki recognized as one of the tattoo artists across from the flower shop where Taichi worked. The artist showed up at various gallery openings for local artists, and it was hard to miss him with the way he laughed loudly and shamelessly promoted himself. Unlike Taichi, who seemed inactive online, the artist liked the sign post and a handful of other older photos, commenting with all types of cute symbols. The artist and Taichi were friends, which somehow didn’t surprise Yuki. 

The online bait went ignored, but a few days later after Yuki stopped feeling irrationally smug at seeing Taichi’s username in his activities, Taichi himself appeared as Yuki was loading the garment pieces he had taken into the shop into the car Muku borrowed from his cousin’s boss at the bakery. After a while, Yuki had forgotten that anything he took to work to sew would need to return to his house to be pinned on the dress forms; he didn’t want to risk lugging a huge bag onto the bus. Taichi glanced at Muku, who looked at Yuki, who puffed up. “Muku, get the rest of it from the back; I’ll be done in a second.”

When Muku returned back into the shop, Taichi took a slow step forward. “It looks like you’ve gotten some, um, help recently.”

“Yeah, I wonder why.” 

“Uh...yeah.” Wringing his hands, Taichi groaned. “So, listen...I know that you’ve got a ton of people that you can turn to, but...uh, I want to be one of them. Although you’ve got other people now...don’t-don’t hesitate to call me too!”

“Dog.” 

Taichi snapped to attention. “W-woof.”

“Do you know why I had to ask Tenma and now Muku to help me out? It’s because somebody decided not to help me anymore.”

“Me?” At Yuki taking a step closer, his chin up and his arms crossed, Taichi took a step back. “You _wanted_ me to help?”

“Yes, you idiot. Stop walking backwards, I’m not going to chase you down the street.” At the command, Taichi stopped. Yuki came close enough to press his arms against his chest. “You’ve probably heard by now that I’m trying to get my clothing and designs picked up by an agency. It’ll get my name and work around so I can really start creating a brand for myself. It’s why I’d been asking you so many favors recently. It used to be fetching me water or fixing something that wasn’t really broken, but it got more and more important. I guess you didn’t notice.”

Taichi swallowed. “I’m...not that smart, I wouldn’t have figured all that out. And you didn’t even say thank you, or even call me by name.”

Yuki leaned forward, his breath hot on Taichi’s cheek. “Thank you, Taichi.” Taichi felt a whine die in his throat. “If it wasn’t something necessary, I wouldn’t have asked you to do it. Now you know.” 

“Now I know.”

“How are you at sewing? I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself.”

Grinning, Taichi opened his mouth to agree wholeheartedly, before tempering himself. “I’m not...great at sewing but I can close tears and maybe put on some buttons!”

“Come with me. I’ll put you to work with things that are hard to maneuver my machine around.”

“Yes! Er…” Remembering Kazunari’s admonishment, he pulled out his phone. “If it’s okay, can I have your number? In...in case you need me to help you with anything again.” 

Yuki pushed away and laughed as he walked to the car. “If you do a good job today, I just might think about giving it to you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I ended up writing a lot and they don't even really officially get together at the end...I love this ship so much! I love childhood friends (don't @ me), defrosting the ice queen, moron culture, Christmas colors...there's so much about these babies and their dynamic I like! I'm obsessed with this AU.


End file.
